Without much thought, we often find ourselves turning and leaving on household appliances at home for nearly the entire day. The pandemic has seen us spend more time at home which naturally increases appliance usage, leading to increased energy consumption. In a warm and tropical country such as Singapore, air conditioners are a necessity in every household yet it’s the appliance that consumes the most energy.
According to an energy consumption profile in 2016 in Singapore, air conditioners use up to 36 percent of the household energy use, followed by the water heater (21 percent) and refrigerator (18 percent).
One of IPUR’s Optigram 2021 winners, He Shiying and New Jun Jie, developed an interactive article that details energy consumption habits of Singaporeans at home and what simple actions can be taken to mitigate carbon emissions. Through their project, users can expect to come away with an understanding of how families and homes in Singapore are using electricity, how that contributes to carbon emissions, and ultimately, visualise the tangible impact they can make based on the number of hours of appliance usage.
Joy Zhang (Dulwich College Singapore) recently interned at IPUR and conducted research for two projects. The first project's objective was to raise awareness about how people’s consumption habits are connect...
Anna Fritz (University of Iowa) and Mattias Brohl (University of Kansas) recently interned at IPUR for two months as part of the CIEE Summer Global Internship program. During their time...